When will Derrick Rose return to form?

Posted by
Inside Hoops

Nov
20

While the NBA world and especially Chicago Bulls fans are happy that Derrick Rose is back in action, so far in this still-new season the former league MVP hasn’t played especially well. He’s shot tons of bricks, and is still returning to form. Here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting:

Tom Thibodeau doesn’t go out on limbs. There’s little gray or ‘‘what if.’’ So when discussing Derrick Rose on Tuesday, the Bulls coach was very matter-of-fact.

‘‘Derrick will be Derrick very shortly,’’ he said.

But what if he’s not? What if, after surgery and a long rehabilitation for his torn anterior cruciate ligament, this is the new Rose — a 34-percent-shooting, 15-points-a-game guard? What if he’s just another NBA player in a sea of upper-echelon talent who doesn’t quite make the cut into elite?

What if Rose being an MVP, as he was in 2011, is a case of days gone by?

It’s not a scenario that Thibodeau deems realistic.

‘‘You’ve got to remember, the guy has been out 18 months,’’ Thibodeau said.